I have wanted to learn Spanish for quite a number of years now. I first started learning Spanish a number of years ago and have picked up enough vocabulary to understand simple sentences here and there but not enough to carry on any real conversation.

My job for the last 15 years has brought me into contact with a large number of people who spoke Spanish and either little or no English. As my ‘job description’ has changed over the years, and others who are bilingual deal with clients directly, I have not felt the urgency of learning Spanish but the desire has remained.

I have had had probably 6 semesters of Spanish. Problem is they are all first semester Spanish.

As other priorities move up in importance, the urge will probably fade again, but I hope not. I have collected a number of Spanish language resources over the years, some good, some not so good. I also am searching for even better ways to learn and improve my Spanish.

Back in November when I was getting started again on my Spanish, I looked on my shelves to see what I had. Over the years I have used a number of Spanish text books. The reasons for the different text books were various, sometimes because it looked better than what I had been using. Sometimes because I hoped it would move me farther than the last. Many times it was just wishful thinking.

The first book I believe I bought was the Foreign Service Institute Spanish Basic Course. It came with a box of cassettes that go through each lesson thoroughly. This course was first printed in 1957. The course was designed specifically to train U.S. government agency staff involved in foreign affairs and who need to learn to speak Spanish. Although the text and cassette tapes are not designed for individual self-study, they are sold and used this way extensively. I don’t remember how much I paid for the book and tapes, but I hope it was not anywhere near the $200 I see it advertised online.

Barron’s has published this course as Mastering Spanish, Level 1 with Audio CDs. The publisher’s blurb says the new edition “has been updated with new references, and up-to-date vocabulary and idioms.”

The second book on my shelf is Spanish is Fun, Book A. This I purchased for a community education class I had hoped would help me. This book now appears to be out of print. From the writing in the book it looks like I only got to lesson 4. If I remember, I dropped out of the class because it was so basic and most of the people in the class whose only exposure to Spanish was at Taco Bell. I have considered taking another community ed class but am not sure my Spanish is good enough for the intermediate class, yet don’t want to start with a class at ground zero (or negative 3) again.

The next book I bought, Spanish Now!, I hoped to use to teach two of my teenagers Spanish as I learned along with them. Again, it looks like we made it to lesson 4! Neither of them had any interest and we had a hard time finding a set time we could do the lessons. One of the reasons I chose this book was because there were audio tapes available for the text and there was a teachers guide that would help in figuring out who had the correct answer.

The fourth text book I have used is Practical Spanish Grammar by Marcial Prado. I made it to Chapter 7 the first time before getting distracted and have picked it up again and hope to make it to the end. Afterwards I plan on using the author’s sequel Advanced Spanish Grammar which is written entirely in Spanish and has good reviews as an intermediate Spanish grammar.

Note: This article was originally written on 11/19/2006 and posted here on 04/10/2007. Since putting this article together I have, of course, purchased some new books but only to supplement Practical Spanish Grammar, not replace it. Of course you cannot learn Spanish just by reading some books but those will be the topic of another post.

In looking for different ways to work on my Spanish learning, I came across a number of podcasts targeted to students of Spanish. Some of the podcasts are way beyond my abilities now, but could be helpful once I get to the intermediate or advanced levels.

• Spanish Phrase of the Day - A daily Spanish phrase to help you build your Spanish vocabulary and comprehension and can be used by all levels of Spanish students.. The podcast has been published almost daily since November 2005.
• Rolling Rs - A video podcast beginning at the beginner level. Hosted by a Junior High School Spanish teacher in Mesa, Arizona. It is pretty good except that the ’start-up’ time for each video is almost as long as the teaching portion itself. 29 video-casts have been produced since January 2006.
• Español Segunda Lengua para Todos  (ssl4you) - The website includes the text of the podcast in both Spanish and English. Over 30 podcasts have been released since February 2006, a respectable rate of about 3 a month. The podcast is based out of Zamora, Spain.
• Notes in Spanish - Both an intermediate and advanced level podcast are available and you can purchase worksheets that provide a transcript of the the Spanish conversation and a list of the vocabulary and phrases for each show. The podcast is recorded in Madrid, Spain by a native speaker and an American who learned Spanish after moving to Spain. The intermediate level just started in September of 2006 and has 10 podcasts produced so far. The advanced podcast just released it’s 56th episode. Both appear to be published weekly.
• Trying to Learn Spanish - These podcasts are not designed to teach you Spanish as much as help you find the tools and resources that will help you learn Spanish. He has published 19 since March 2005, but only 4 were recorded this year. I am not sure if he ran out of time to produce the podcasts or if he ran out of material to talk about. The comments by listeners also have some good links to resources related to the podcast subjects.
• Podsonoro - I include this just in case you want to listen to Spanish podcasts, this site collects the links. It will be a while before I can even consider these.

This post is modified from a ‘learning log’ I wrote in December over at the forum, How to Learn any Language.

Back in November I started over with learning Spanish. I have done the equivalent of 1st semester Spanish 3 or 4 times before being distracted by other things and laying it aside.

So once again I start up Spanish. Here are some of the resources I am using:

Prado’s ‘Practical Spanish Grammar‘ - I had completed up through lesson 6 before ‘restarting’, so I reviewed that material and am going through lesson 7 now. All the vocabulary, grammar rules, and exercises from lessons 1-6 were already in SuperMemo. I would like to complete a chapter a week in this book. It takes some time to transcribe all the vocabulary and exercises into SuperMemo plus turn the grammar rules into questions, but that in itself is a good learning tool.

Platiquemos FSI - I had purchased the standard FSI course 3 or so years ago - but the phonetic alphabet that is used (rather than just plain Spanish) made it too difficult for me to get far enough. After reading this forum I decided to buy Platiquemos. I have gone through units 1 and 2 and all the vocabulary is in SuperMemo. I have been disappointed about the typos I have run across already, but they seem to be par for the course, since even ‘Practical Spanish Grammar’ has it’s share. It was very difficult to follow the speakers as they read the columns of Spanish/English but not in the order they are printed in the book. I hope to progress through a lesson a week in this program too. I am not sure if this is practical yet since I am still in the ‘intro’ units.

Learn in Your Car Spanish - I am using this as a supplemental vocabulary builder and pronunciation guide. It’s advantage is that I can use it while driving in my car. I am also transcribing the vocabulary into SuperMemo so that I can learn the correct spelling to along with the audio learning. I hope to enter 2 or 3 ‘lessons’ each week into Supermemo.

SuperMemo for the Palm. I use this program as my flash card drill. I enter not just vocabulary but also grammar rules, translation exercises, multiple choice questions, etc. All vocabulary and translation work is put in 2 times - once for English to Spanish and once for Spanish to English drill. When I restarted I had 2800 items in the database. I am now up to 3250. It uses a repetition spacing algorithm that drills you on the stuff you don’t know. It took quite a while to clear the ‘items needing work’. It still brings up 200+ cards a day to review but I am able to add new stuff now and still get through all the cards in a day.

I have a number of other resources I will use but don’t have ’scheduled’. I like to go to the library and pull 3 or so kids books from the Spanish section and read them during lunch. I have 2 easy Spanish readers. I like listening to the Spanish radio stations even though 90% of the vocabulary is beyond me now.

• Madrigal Magic Key: Checking it out
• Beginners Spanish Dictionary: Checking it out

Based on recommendations I read in the How to Learn any Language Forum, I bought myself Big Red Book of Spanish Vocabulary: 30,000 Words Including Cognates, Roots, and Suffixes (along with the Big Red Book of Verbs and the Big Red Books of Idioms).

The 30,000 Spanish vocabulary terms are divided into the following sections:

• Cognates: These words are similar in Spanish and English, making them the easiest to learn. This section contains 14,000 cognates thematically arranged into twenty key topics.
• Root families: Another easy way to expand your vocabulary is to become familiar with related word families that have the same root. This section contains 14,000 terms grouped into 2,200 root categories.
• Suffixes: More than most languages, Spanish relies on suffixes to denote parts of speech and convey nuances of meaning. This section contains 4,600 terms grouped into 130 of the most common Spanish suffixes.
• Frequency Table: Lists the 5,000 most commonly used words in Spanish and an Alphabetical Index cross-referencing every entry in the root, suffix, and frequency sections.

Now I must restrain myself from buying more books - until I at least master part of what I currently own

SuperMemo: 4354 ‘cards’

• Stats: 903 Nouns, 193 Verbs.
• This is what takes most of my time but can be done anytime so allows me an extra hour or two of studying time each day that would normally be lost. Currently about 250 pop up each morning for review.

Practical Grammar: Chapter 8, completed

• All the vocabulary and exercises are entered into SuperMemo to help over-learn the material.

Platiquemos: Chapter 4.22

• Progress has been slower here than I had hoped. I find it hard to find time to listen to the material, and I am not able to answer the prompts in the pause provided without lots of practice. My ‘audible’ comprehension is not as good as my ‘visual’ comprehension.

LIYC Spanish: Lesson 17 entered into SuperMemo

• I have been listening to the first CD as time permits in the car. All vocabulary from the first 17 lessons are now in SuperMemo.

Easy Spanish Reader: Chapter 1

• Have not touched this book since last time.

Madrigal Magic Key: Lesson 3, completed

• Rules and translation exercises are entered into SuperMemo as I study the lessons.

My evaluation: Slow

• Progress has been slower than what I desired. I was hoping to get through one Platiquemos lesson per week but I have not been able to work through the audio often enough to get it cemented in my old brain.
• I am also surprised how much time it takes to get through the SuperMemo flash cards. It is a good learning method it is not just vocabulary since I also have all the grammar points and translation drills in there too - so it is a lot of work